Hong Kong actress slams Edison over 2008 sex photos leak

HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong actress at the center of an Internet sex photo scandal has broken her silence about the incident, lashing out at the pop star who took the compromising pictures, a report said Saturday.

Cecilia Cheung, one of several local celebrities shown in the photos with Hong Kong-Canadian actor and singer Edison Chen, said he had never apologized, and that she was still reeling from the ordeal a year later.

"He has never apologized to us personally," Cheung told iCable in an interview broadcast late Friday, according to a report in the English-language South China Morning Post.

"He should at least have called us to say sorry if he genuinely admitted his mistake."

She added: "The photos are still circulating online. How can we live a healthy and happy life? How can we put ourselves back on our feet?"

The photos — showing Chen in compromising positions with various celebrities including Cheung, Canto-pop star Gillian Chung and former actress Bobo Chan — became an Internet sensation when they were posted a year ago.

Cheung said she decided to break her silence after Chen gave evidence earlier this week in a Canadian court in the case of Sze Ho-Chun, a computer technician charged here with illegally posting the explicit photos online.

The 28-year-old Chen for the first time identified Cheung, Chung and Chan in the Vancouver court as some of the women in the photos, but said later outside court he wanted to "protect" them and that they had "suffered enough," the Post reported.

Chen, one of Asia's biggest stars in film and music, saw his career destroyed by the appearance of hundreds of the sex photos, which caused a storm in celebrity-obsessed but culturally conservative Hong Kong.

The scandal forced him into early retirement and sent him fleeing to his childhood home of Canada.